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Wednesday Sector Leaders: Energy, Materials

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Looking at the sectors faring best as of midday Wednesday, shares of Energy companies are outperforming other sectors, higher by 1.0%. Within that group, Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:MPC) and Valero Energy Corp (NYSE:VLO) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively. Among energy ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLE), which is up 0.8% on the day, and up 16.76% year-to-date. Marathon Petroleum Corp., meanwhile, is up 47.55% year-to-date, and Valero Energy Corp is up 41.06% year-to-date. Combined, MPC and VLO make up approximately 8.3% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, higher by 0.7%. Among large Materials stocks, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX) and Albemarle Corp. (NYSE:ALB) are the most notable, showing a gain of 2.2% and 2.1%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 0.6% in midday trading, and up 8.97% on a year-to-date basis. Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, meanwhile, is up 16.56% year-to-date, and Albemarle Corp., is down 10.33% year-to-date. Combined, FCX and ALB make up approximately 8.2% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

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Comparing these stocks and ETFs on a trailing twelve month basis, below is a relative stock price performance chart, with each of the symbols shown in a different color as labeled in the legend at the bottom:

Here's a snapshot of how the S&P 500 components within the various sectors are faring in afternoon trading on Wednesday. As you can see, six sectors are up on the day, while three sectors are down.